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18/10/2010

VGJUNK MUSICAL HALLOWE'EN PLAYLIST PART 2

As inevitably as night follows day and severe mental retardation follows prolonged exposure to Loose Women, so approacheth part two of VGJUNK's frightfully fearsome playlist of Hallowe'en-flavoured videogame music. If you want to refresh you memory as to the contents of part one, then here it is. Ready? Then onwards!

Ghost House, Super Mario World, SNES

Why did I love Super Mario's spectral Boos so much as a child? Was it because I empathised, nay, identified with their crippling shyness? No, it is because they are super-cool, goofy-faced ghosts. If I was a cartoony ghost, I could not ask for better theme music than this. That descending "whoooo" sound effect? That's the stuff right there. Like all Mario music, its secret is its simplicity, a simplicity that crawls into you brain and takes up permanent residence so it can warn you not to turn your back on the roaming spirits of the dead for too long.

The Lair, Splatterhouse 2, MegaDrive

I could have chosen any song from Splatterhouse 2, really. They're all excellent and filled with more Hallowe'enosity than a pumpkin made of bats being carried by Michael Myers. I like that the track has the feel of an end-credits song that might play over a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel from the early nineties, perhaps accompanied by Robert Englund rapping. Now there's a nightmare for ya.

The Mystic Forest, Final Fantasy 6, SNES

Not a Hallowe'en game, but it does feature an honest-to-god Ghost Train. Final Fantasy 6 cements it's place as one of my all-time favourite games not only by including an honest-to-god Ghost Train that, yes, you can suplex, but by having some beautiful music, such as this track that plays on the area just preceding the train of ghosts. Another triumph over the limitations of the SNES's musical limitations. Plus, the arranged, orchestral Grand Finale version is a great counter to anyone who complains about game music just being all bleepy-bloopy:

Playrooms of Asylum, Shadowman, N64

A depressingly overlooked diamond of a game, Shadowman probably the only game I've ever played that can claim to challenge the big two of the Silent Hill series and Resident Evil REmake in terms of sheer creepy atmosphere. Deep in the titular Asylum, located in the voodoo equivalent of Hell, you come across the Playrooms, which are full of blood and chains and unidentifiable pieces of meat and... this music. I think this might edge out Silent Hill 2's "Betrayal" to become the most terrifying piece of sonic disturbance on this playlist. It will haunt you, especially if you listen to it on your own at night. If you do, I cannot be held responsible for any sudden feelings that there is a demonic butcher in your house and he wants to play with you, or that all hope and joy has been drained from the world.

Mars Needs Cheerleaders, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, SNES

To apologise for inflicting the Playrooms music on you, I offer you this: my favourite track from one of my favourite games (and indeed game soundtracks) of all time. It's like Danny Elfman wrote the music for a 50's B-movie using a SNES, and it is glorious. I defy you to not smile while you're listening to this. I want to have babies with that SNES theremin sound effect, beautiful vibrato babies that make the world a better place just by existing. Okay, you're probably not smiling now.

That's it for part two. Part one is here, and perhaps one day there will be (gasp)... PART THREE!